No, I can't get the machine to boot into ESXi at all. After the failed upgrade it hangs at Hypervisor Recovery. I tried the install again and this time, upgrade is not an option - it only let me do an install (so maybe the disk had been corrupted). I tried a fresh install and got a similar (but different) error. See 2nd attached screenshot below.
I'll also not that I was using IPMI Virtual Media. Thinking that it may be an issue, I burned the media to a USB stick and tried a local boot as well but both ways yield same problem and result.
Thanks!